HELP !!! HARD DRIVE HEADACHE

[Guest]

PREFACE:
DVD/CD RW DRIVE BURNER replacement received from warranty coverage
Took to "The Geek Squad" at the well known electronics store I won't name.
Teck opened pc on counter, pulled out faulty DVD/CD Burner, slipped the
other in ... hooked up to monitor, ran some programs, then told me it would
be about 3 hours before it would be ready, he also told me the drive would
NOT play DVD movies ... lacking "CODECS" (I have never really tried to run a
movie .. I use the DVD for slide shows for my work ...
HOW and where are the CODECS ?) said he would have to "install the DVD/CD
Drive Burner" (And get this ... he said I had dust in pc that needs spray air
.... he had some on the counter .. I asked him if he could do that at that
time .. he said it would be a $20 charge !!!! )
When I went to pick it up, that tech wasn't there. Paid the installation fee
and took it home.
Got it hooked up ... he had formatted the C Drive and it was TOTALLY wiped
out all that I had on that drive.
I have 2 drives in pc ... C Drive 80 GB and F Drive 250 GB
Most of my work was on the F Drive and some of it was still on drive because
the drive usage showed about 50% used .. 50% free, was about what I had.
I had financial info, photography work that I do, all my music ....
PROBLEM ?? The Drive will not allow my access to these areas .. it blocks me
out.

Does ANYONE have any ideas or suggestions as to how I can get to these files
and folders and get them to open up ??? I need them for my work.
I would greatly appreciate any help.

Thanks
-- 25or6to4 --

 

[Kerry Brown]

You need to take ownership of the files.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

Once you have access to your data I would return to the sore and demand to
talk to a supervisor. All they had to do was done at the counter while you
were watching. If you never signed anything telling them to format your hard
drive you may have grounds for legal action. At the very least you should
let them know how unhappy you are. You should also go to the following site
and test your computer for a legitimate OS.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/howtotell/ww/windows/default.mspx

They may have not have re-installed Windows with your version, key, etc. and
you may run into future problems with updates. If you fail the validation
test insist that they return your computer to a state where it will pass the
validation. Make sure you have backups of anything important before you let
them do this.

 

[Guest]

Unbelievable! Did you say this happened through a BEST BUY highschool geek?
They gotcha with the old dust in the pc trick.....I suppose you didn't get a
dust per square inch count....

You may want to await a response from others at this group. But in the
interim it might help to use a recovery software. I discovered this freeware
the other day and it found hidden copies of the original operating systems
and partitions, that i presumed were overwritten when i restored my
harddrive. Try it out and see if it discovers anything you can recognize....
I will post them for you as soon as i research my disk for a disk recovery
program and a file recovery program too.

 

[Guest]

Here are the url's with the downloads that might help you out. Download them
and install them on the "good" partition you have and not the damaged one.
If prompted where to save files, the default is usually c drive. Instead
change it to your f drive or something other than the one that requires work:

a) http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/download.htm

b)
http://www.free2u.org/freeware/system_utilities/file_management/file_recovery/rest2514.html

c) http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm

I suggest you download a and b above and browse the features of the software
before initiating anything. This way you can see which of them offers the
best solution for you. With c above, this is a page that has several
programs. And depending if you are using ntfs or fat32, you would have to
select the one that accomadates your system. Again, download and browse the
features first before initiating any processes.

There is also demo software from Acronis and PCTools that can be downloaded.
They will let you see what they are capable of but won;t allow you to engage
any processes to fix your problem without buying the program. Check them out
and see if they can find what you are missing.....

 

[Anna]

PREFACE:
DVD/CD RW DRIVE BURNER replacement received from warranty coverage
Took to "The Geek Squad" at the well known electronics store I won't name.
Teck opened pc on counter, pulled out faulty DVD/CD Burner, slipped the
other in ... hooked up to monitor, ran some programs, then told me it
would
be about 3 hours before it would be ready, he also told me the drive would
NOT play DVD movies ... lacking "CODECS" (I have never really tried to run
a
movie .. I use the DVD for slide shows for my work ...
HOW and where are the CODECS ?) said he would have to "install the DVD/CD
Drive Burner" (And get this ... he said I had dust in pc that needs spray
air
... he had some on the counter .. I asked him if he could do that at that
time .. he said it would be a $20 charge !!!! )
When I went to pick it up, that tech wasn't there. Paid the installation
fee
and took it home.
Got it hooked up ... he had formatted the C Drive and it was TOTALLY wiped
out all that I had on that drive.
I have 2 drives in pc ... C Drive 80 GB and F Drive 250 GB
Most of my work was on the F Drive and some of it was still on drive
because
the drive usage showed about 50% used .. 50% free, was about what I had.
I had financial info, photography work that I do, all my music ....
PROBLEM ?? The Drive will not allow my access to these areas .. it blocks
me
out.

Does ANYONE have any ideas or suggestions as to how I can get to these
files
and folders and get them to open up ??? I need them for my work.
I would greatly appreciate any help.

Thanks
-- 25or6to4 --

25or6to4:
In addition to the recommendations you've received from Kerry Brown and
assuming your problem still remains...

1. Could you explain in more detail what you mean when you say "The Drive
will not allow my access to these areas (on your secondary HD), .. it blocks
me out."? I take it you're able to boot without any problem but the 250 GB
HD is not shown in My Computer and/or Windows Explorer. Is that correct?

2. Is the 250 GB HD listed in Device Manager in the "Disk drives" section?

3. Can you access Disk Management (Start > right-click My Computer > Manage

Computer Management > Disk Management) to determine if the problem drive

is listed there? If so, does it have a drive letter assigned to it?

4. Assuming the problem HD is not listed in Device Manager or Disk
Management, do you know how to access your BIOS to determine if the 250 GB
HD is detected there?

5. I assume your hard drives are *not* SATA HDs, correct?

We can go on from here after you provide answers to the above.

In the event you will need to get inside your computer case to make a couple
or so of changes possibly involving HD data cable changes and/or HD jumper
changes, would you be able to do this? Hopefully, this will not be
necessary.
Anna

 

[Guest]

One other thing.... It may not be realistic to attempt to reverse the new
installation. Basically when a partition containing vital system files and
installed programs are removed by a new install of the o.s., restoring them
to the original state could only be done through restore / recovery disks /
drive image disks that were made from the original partition.

Instead, i would focus on recovering those valuable deleted documents,
presentations, pics, etc...... and moving them to a safe place. The o.s.
and programs should then be reinstalled via the normal installation process.
"THEN" make the recovery disks on a semi regular basis to avoid these kinds
of headaches. If it were me, i would have had a heart attack. Then after
recovery go to the store manager and let off lot's of steam.....!

But be patient at this time and wait a couple of hours, maybe a day to see
the recommendations of others on this group. In the mean time, do not
defrag, format or do anything kind of cleaning of your disks.... You need to
preserve as much as possible until you can get your valuable files into a
safe place...

 

[LS \(V\)]

You would be supprised to find out about the other "Geek Squad" screw
ups..... Talk to a Tech (not from Best Buy) about some of the problems
caused from them!

 

[Guest]

Hey folks,
Apologize for not responding sooner ... have been out of town.
I tried the suggestions and it turns out that a little bit from all of them
is going to do the trick.
RE: Music files .. it lost my mp3's that were converted from the wma's (it
left the wma's ) Now, if I could just find a way to convert the wma's back to
mp3's.

RE: The "GEEK SQUAD" ... You better believe I have had discussions on the
phone, and then in person. I brought my pocket digital camera, and took
picture of the pc front desk and wall behind it to show there were NO signs
regarding software lost, and I NEVER signed a form for anything.
When I had these pics developed, I took them, and my pc, back to the manager
and told him I demand to have the folders and files, which were still on the
second hard drive, recovered.
He told me I would have to PAY for the tech's time, and regarding the pics
of no signs, he told me that the possibility of this happening was "IMPLIED".
After we went around and around, I picked up my pc with one hand and with
the other hand, I lifted it into the air in his face and told him "This is
IMPLIED".

Again, thanks all for your replies and help. I have always found the more
knowledgeable advice can be found here, and I appreciate the time you took
for researching my problem.

 

[Guest]

Some shareware program I tried was helpful also.
It shows you EVERYTHING that's on your pc .....
It is ... jv16 Power Tools
It's good to use for 30 days